The man who murdered Irish vet Catherine Gowing has been jailed for life and told he will serve a minimum of 37 years.

Gowing's body has never been fully recovered, although remains were found at two rural locations near her home in Flintshire, north Wales, and near Chester.

Clive Sharp.

Clive Sharp, 47, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to her murder at Mold crown court last month. On Monday, Mr Justice Griffith Williams ordered that Sharp serve a minimum of 37 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole.

Gowing's disappearance in Flintshire last October sparked North Wales police's largest ever search operation.

Sharp, dressed in grey jogging bottoms and a grey jumper, did not react. Gowing's sister, Emma, who was sat in the public gallery yards from the dock, did not take her eyes off the defendant throughout the 50-minute hearing.

The court heard Sharp had a string of previous convictions for sexual offences, beginning when he was just 16 and harboured perverted sexual fantasies involving the gagging, rape and murder of women, fantasies that he acted out on Gowing.

Hours before the murder he left another woman tied to a bed after she refused to take part in perverted sexual acts, the jury heard.